The invention relates to a weather strip attached to a front end of a rear door of a car which is unfurnished with a center pillar. The front door of the car is turnable about hinges provided at the front end thereof, and the rear door of the car slides back and forth.
A conventional weather strip is described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. There has been a conventional car having no center pillars, having a pair of front doors 2 turnable about hinges provided at the front end thereof, and having a pair of rear doors capable of sliding back and forth. In this conventional car, a tapered lip portion 22 is formed on a molded portion 21 of a weather strip of the rear door 1 at the upper end thereof extending towards the front door 2.
The lip portion 22 secures a sealing performance between the front door 2, the rear door 1 and a roof side 4 as a tip portion 22a of the lip portion 22 enters between an opening seal 3 provided along the roof side 4 of a car body and the front door 2 when the rear door 1 is closed.
There is provided a water receiver 23 on the molded portion 21 immediately below the lip portion 22 facing the opening seal 3. The water receiver 23 catches water e.g. rainwater. The water passes a water drawing port 18 formed on the molded portion 21 of the weather strip 20 and drains through the hollow portion formed in an extrusion molded portion 15 uniformed with the molded portion 21 below the molded portion 21.
According to the conventional weather strip, since the lip portion 22 is tapered, when the rear door 1 is closed while the front door 2 is closed beforehand, the thin tip end 22a of the lip portion 22 is forced to slide on the opening seal 3 and a weather strip 16 for the front door 2. Therefore, the tip end 22a of the lip portion 22 tends to reverse its posture by the repulsive force generated there. Accordingly, there is formed a gap G between the opening seal 3 and the front door weather strip 16, decresing a sealing performance of that portion (see FIG. 4).
To solve this problem, the tip end 22a of the lip portion 22 may be formed thicker, thereby preventing the tip end 22a from being reversed or curled up. However, if the tip end 22a is made thicker, there will be formed a gap at the front and back sides of the thick tip end, although the thick tip end would not reverse. Thus, the sealing performance will not improve with this means.
The invention has been developed to solve the problem in the conventional weather strip as set forth above, and it is an object of the invention to provide a weather strip for a sliding type rear door in which a lip portion does not reverse its posture or curl up when the rear door is closed.
To achieve the above object, the weather strip 10 for a sliding type rear door according to a first aspect of the invention is applied to a car which is unfurnished with a center pillar, and is furnished with a front door 2 turnable about hinges provided at the front end thereof and with a sliding rear door which slides back and forth. The weather strip is attached to the front end of the rear door 1 and includes a tapered lip portion 12 extending toward the front door 2. The tapered lip portion 12 is formed on a molded portion 11 of the weather strip formed at the upper end portion thereof. The tapered portion 12 elastically contacts an opening seal 3 attached to a roof side 4 of a car body and a weather strip 16 attached to a rear end of the front door 2 when the rear door 1 is closed. A guide portion 14 is formed at the lower half of the lip portion 12. The guide portion 13 is thicker than the lip portion 12, and it contacts the opening seal 3 and the front door weather strip 16 immediately before the tip end 12a of the tapered lip portion 12 contacts the opening seal 3 and the front door weather strip 16.
The weather strip according to the second aspect of the invention is characterized in that the guide portion 14 comprises a tapered base portion 14a and an expansion portion 14b provided at the front end of the base portion 14a. The expansion portion 14b comprises a shape of a semicircular in cross section.